Shameful: Tax Cuts All Around (Sort of) But Millions of Kids to be Left Without Health Insurance

“A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.” -Mahatma Ghandi

The recent action by Republicans in Congress and the president of the United States have given new evidence to Ghandi’s insight…and it’s ugly. The nation has taken care of its wealthiest, its richest, its best off, while leaving millions of children without health insurance. It’s disgraceful.

Champagne is popping in the boardrooms, on Wall Street, and by the progressively-better-off companies owned by the Trump family, Sen. Bob Corker and other members of Congress who supported this massive giveaway to the wealthy. It would be one thing if it just ended there—rich guys taking care of their donors and themselves. But it doesn’t. While the Rich Uncles Pennybags celebrate their newfound good fortune, some nine million children from low-income homes are about to be without health insurance.

Let me say this is the starkest way possible: Republicans spent the time from the expiration of CHIP trying to find new ways to take health insurance away from tens of millions of adults (they failed) and figuring out how to give huge tax breaks to corporations (permanent) and to individuals (expire) while sticking the bill to us and our kids.

It’s disgraceful that Republicans worked on an issue—enriching themselves and their friends—that had no clock on it other than Trump’s desire to make the giveaway a “big, beautiful Christmas present.” But for low-income families, you better hope your kids don’t get sick because they’ll be out of luck.

Yeah, that’s a full, complete, unmitigated lie.

Let’s also not forget that yanking these kids’ health insurance cards is just what is happening right away. With the passage of the tax scam, the kids’ parents will get their Social Security and Medicare whacked when it comes time to pay for this monstrous hit to the national debt.

The stories of how people have enriched themselves with this tax scam contrast dramatically to the “screw the poor kids” attitude of the same people. Sen. Bob Corker’s actions are scandalous and unethical. He made it a point to say he would oppose the bill if it added a penny to the debt. He reiterated that point right up to the day before the vote. The plan still added $1.5 trillion to the debt. Corker suddenly changed his mind. What changed in the bill?

Included in the closing day or two of the debate, was a provision—a loophole—that would benefit large real estate holders; in Corker’s case by millions of dollars. Nothing else changed. We don’t know how much the president and his family benefit because he refuses to release his tax returns. (On that note, Trump obviously has calculated that not releasing his tax returns would be less damaging than releasing them. So far, he appears to be correct.)

Not only does Corker have no qualms about what he did, he is incredulous when asked about it.

What kind of nation have we become? A bunch of men (add in Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski) stood in front of the White House and patted themselves and Trump on the back while kids are about to lose their health insurance, They celebrated while the kids suffer.